Kingston's Perpetual Grow & Juice Bar - LED - 11 Strains

[KingstonRabbi]

Pest Update

Mites are still a problem. Adults are gone but young ones keep coming back. I doubled strength of neem oil and plan to increase frequency of sprays. Also keeping space between plants finishing in tent and new ones added.

Bigger problem is rats. Finally found gnawed stems on 2 plants, my 2 most vigorous growers HB2 and HB4. Thankfully they only chewed one side. I've upped the control to include glue traps and poison. They just learn to avoid snap traps (at least some do, caught a few dumb ones.) Hate using poison, but protecting my medicine is more urgent. I made sure it's pet safe in case my dogs find one of dead rats. Don't know when I'll find time, but I also need to convert my home-made tent into more secure room.

 

[Nicholas Flamel]

Great journal kingston Lovely plants aswell.

 

[Asesino85]

Great journal kingston Lovely plants aswell.

Yeah I enjoy seeing what madness (in a good way) is occurring here. You have always got great projects and plants going on. It keeps things exciting. I already get bored and I have two tents this time! Time to research breeding Hail to the Rabbi!

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Thanks for stopping in Nicholas. I enjoy your posts on numerous journals.

Hey Asesino. Good to see you too. Glad your new grow is off to good start and running smoothly. If you're really bored and want more projects I've got a few I can pass off to you! Last 2 weeks it seems like it's been 1 step forward and 2 steps back. I gotta learn to simplify, because getting organized just isn't happening.

 

[Mars Hydro]

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Black Cherry Soda and Critical Update

These are two of my best performing plants bulking up nicely, almost ready to harvest at about 8 weeks flower. First photo is on 10/9, second from 9/22. I've been so busy taking care of my problem children that I hadn't noticed just how well these two were doing. They are only 2 plants that had no live mites yesterday.

I expected good production from BCS, which is clone of one of first plants I harvested. It grows like a dense christmas tree if you let it, but does very well in scrog and lst. The leaves are so dense it's hard to keep up with defol. The one issue from last harvest was potency, but that may be due to early harvesting before I had amber trichs. Strain has potential to be well over 20% THC. I am waiting a little longer for about 25% amber this time. Should be any day now. It's a clone only strain, so it should have the same genetics as plants I've seen tested out at 27%. Next batch will be high brix grow so I may come close.

Critical is a pleasant surprise as a free seed that has had no problems. I read that it is powerful smelling strain but even that really hasn't been a problem. Also reading now that it has potential to yield over 600g/m2. Even if my plant doesn't quite have those genetics it still looks like a keeper.

My favorite part, the frost. haven't seen much on earlier harvested plants, even white widows. I'm raising my expectations another notch on this grow. BCS on left, Critical on right.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Hash Bomb Update

This is probably the most fun strain to watch because of variety of phenos among seedlings, ranging from narrow sativa to bushy indica. I was disappointed by early development in flower but was finally rewarded with late stretches after I upgraded nute routine. Still don't know how long these will go. No amber yet at 49 days. Bomb Seeds claims 8 weeks, but I've seen other Bomb grows that went far longer. I hope that's the case with mine (ironic that when I picked strain it was partly due to short flower period claimed.)

HB2 is the big girl taking up 2 sq.ft. with own screen instead of sharing like others. She grew too fast in veg, and her clones are taking off just like mom. Chronic problem is that she is too big for 2 gal pot and has dried out completely a few times. I think she would be doing better otherwise. I am pleased with her stretch but not will sparse flowering so far. She is one of plants chewed on by rat, but not as badly as HB4, so shouldn't hurt production too much. 2nd photo from 9/22. I'm trying back building (done after photo) on all HBs to try to bulk up colas.

HB4 and HB6 are discontinued lines with no clones. Really impressed with stretch on HB4, and thinking I may have picked wrong plant to keep for clones. Really I won't know until final harvest just what these plants will do. I can see more development of colas over last 2 weeks on these than on HB2. HB6 didn't stretch but seems to have fatter buds.

HB8 is the indica pheno, and is mother of 2 clones in veg. Almost didn't have any clones because I wasn't paying attention. I put both clones in pot with other surplus clones to flower in SOG. Realized my mistake before they actually started flower. I didn't think she had much potential at first because of smaller size than others, but her buds are filling out much better than others and indica growth habit works better for scrog. So many surprises with this strain. Glad I rescued the clones. Last photo is cola on 9-22.

HB10 is still growing out as my Hexoflux experiment. I haven't had any time to work on her since my last update on her. Some time this week I'll get some photos as I redo her wiring. I was getting to point of giving up and just letting her go now. She'd probably be most productive of group if I did. But seeing Mr. A's flux reach fruition this weekend has renewed my commitment to finish what I started.

 

[Mars Hydro]

 

[Lady G2HM]

Hydrogen Peroxide is my #1 goto when I had bugs. Have you tried it?

You could wrap your stalks with something to protect your plants from rats?

Have a great day!

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Reviewing my TO-DO list from 8/11:

1) I need to pay much more attention to scrog training. Wire training keeps plants at right height going into scrog but doesn't develop the even spread or level canopy. Right now a lot of bud sites are below the screen and others are stretching well above it. Also there are gaps and overcrowded areas. Finally it's a tangled mess under the screen making it difficult to water properly or defoliate.
Solution: I need to build individual screens for each tray of 2 plants and start training a couple weeks before moving to the tent. This was my original plan, but time constraints forced me to try one large screen. It's too late to do much for most of the plants already in tent, but this weekend I'l build as many as I can so that from now on plants will be easier to maintain in flower.
I made the screens and they work great. I've also weeded out strains that are difficult to control. I'm also experimenting with other styles and larger pots. I have several in veg training under 1'x2' screen, but I plan to grow bigger so need to start training individual plants to fit 2'x2' space, and build new screens. That's an easy one.

2) We're gonna need a bigger boat! I have just enough room now to fit the plants I have ready to go into flower. But in a month I'll have another batch of clones ready to go in before these are harvested. And I need to be able to keep moving plants in to maintain steady juice supply for treatment. Also, plants I have ready now are going to get too big to fit in 1 sg.ft. currently available in tent.
Solution: I can add on 4x5' space and cover total area with 8 LEDs I have. This was my original design for room, but I have to move some of my other projects out of my workshop first. That will be a slow process, but I have 3-4 weeks before I need the extra space.
Realized that I actually have enough room for plants I need, but workspace is really crowded. A slightly bigger tent would help, but what I really need to do is build a more finished room. I need more head room, better hygiene control, security from rats, and a bigger door and slightly different lay-out for bigger plants. This one is gonna take some time.

3) My feeding schedule needs to be an actual schedule with more complete set of nutes. Currently using FF Grow Big and Tiger Bloom, plus Ca/Mg and live compost tea. I have to FF schedule for all their supplements but haven't taken time to sit down and really plan feedings.
Solution: Add Bloom Big for certain. Not sure on other supplements. It's a balance between maximizing bud size/potency and keeping it simple which is major issue for me still. Looking over their product line I think I should one to boost end of flower production and one to use early to build structure for better flowering. I would really appreciate input from anyone using FF line.
This is finally settling into a manageable routine, and I'm doing much better keeping tracking of feedings, but it will all change again when you read next item.

4) Soil. This is really a much longer term improvement to switch to live organic hot soil. Currently using plain organic raised bed soil which works well as base. It drains well and holds water well. When I had 30 plants to pot up plain soil was all I could manage. Now that I have only few at a time I can spend some time mixing in a few amendments. I have several well aged compost piles, some up to 4 years old, that I use to make tea. Would like recommendation for best 1-2 amendments to boost bioavailability without overfeeding.
I recently upgraded soil to Sunshine #4 with mycorrhizae for live organic soil. Now I've ordered Doc's kit to go high brix. Now that I better understand soil, nutrition and few other things I think I'm ready to handle the full deal. Of course growing bigger plants means that I'm back to having too many plants. That's a problem I like to have.

5) Ventilation. With tent 40% full and one 4" vent fan temp is 27C and RH 40%. In morning when lights first come on it's 20C and 50%. That probably won't last unless I add another vent fan plus filters as odor increases, which is what I originally planned to do at this time in grow.
This one rolls into #2 above with more finished space. Temps are stable 25C high and 18C low with 40-50% RH. With better sealed room I'll need to upgrade all my short cuts to actual vent fans and inlets. And add filter. I don't notice smell and like it when I do, but I'm sure guests would appreciate it.

The reality of the size of this operation is starting to sink in. Almost 50 plants between indoor and outdoor grows, plus clones to raise to maintain perpetual harvest. They didn't look like much when they were still seedlings on a shelf, or even when they were in 1 gal. Now in 2 gal and filled out I can't get even 1/3 of them in single picture. By the way I found the HB6 that was missing. It all points to my needing to focus more energy on record keeping than I have been. Gradually it's all coming together. Baby steps.
Ditto. Plus with continuing pest problems changes are more important than ever. I can continue to get by with what I'm doing now. But like a lot of people here I want to get to point where I can provide medicine for others as well. That would be the best treatment for my anger and frustration that I know of.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

The Honey I'm Home Update

This is the package that greeted me when I got home this evening. Doc Bud's HB kit. Ready to start cooking some new soil.

This is the next sight I saw. Not exactly hurricane force winds, but enough.

Got the greenhouse set back up, sending my already spasming back into overdrive. Fortunately the plants are all fine and safely secured for bigger winds this weekend. Cola shots of White Widow #3 (44 days flower), Mendocino Madness #4 (41 days) and MM#5 (41 days). They have definitely fattened up this week, so I guess light and temps will be fine to finish in greenhouse after all.

Next I checked on the next generation. One of each new strain planted 1/4" deep in Sunshine #4 on 10/3. K-Train sprouted after 2 days, Blue Mystic after 3. You can see my trademark long stems that developed while I was still waiting for others to sprout. Dance World and Medical Mass didn't after 6 days, so I started 2 more of each soaking in water until seeds cracked. They floated 2 days, sank finally when I stirred water, and planted them radical end down in soil. Meantime DW#1 sprouted with major helmet head I had to pry off yesterday. DW#2-4 (yes 4, one of bubbles had 2 seeds, Bonus!) started emerging Wednesday, MdM#2 also on Wed., MdM#1 finally emerged last night, no sign of MdM#3.

So that's one end of the life cycle. Next I headed to tent where I saw the other end where it all comes full circle. I pollenated one stem of HB#8 with male HB. That looks like a seed to me in there. any thoughts?

Next stop an ice pack and heavy self-medication. Checking out for the night. See you tomorrow.

 

[Mars Hydro]

 

[Dwight Monk]

Nice stuff ....Is the Black Cherry Soda a fairly forgiving plant? Love that flower in the Dispensaries, but think I need to stick to the easier strains to grow until I get a few grows under my belt (and haven't seen that one in a Clone anywhere around here though anyway), just like about anything with Grand Daddy Purple in it for Hybrids I seem to love.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

BCS is very easy. As you can see it can take a lot of abuse. It was one of first plants I grew and it made me a little overconfident with the plants I'm flowering now. From reviews I've read online it seems to be a local PNW strain, not much available outside PNW.

 

[Dwight Monk]

BCS is very easy. As you can see it can take a lot of abuse. It was one of first plants I grew and it made me a little overconfident with the plants I'm flowering now. From reviews I've read online it seems to be a local PNW strain, not much available outside PNW.

Cool I will have to try to find some of it by searching nearby on Leafly (though only one Dispensary in town sells clones on a regular basis, and not sure what happens when Rec and Med have to be separate businesses starting the first of the year), windy and raining like a mother here tonight in Oregon, I would be a mess if I had my set up outside (well mine is in shed, but inside 4 walls so little less stress, other than that big arsed cherry tree next to the shed ).

 

[KingstonRabbi]

The Dirty Secrets Update

Now that I have your attention, just a batch of Doc Buds mix in progress. To each tub I added 5 gal bucket of dry soil mix and 5 gal rain-soaked soil mix, plus 5 gal of worm castings divided between all three, and of course the amendment from the kit. 35 gallons total, enough for 8 5-gal pots counting the soil from pots the plants are already in. Having half soil dry and half wet made it much easier to tell when it was thoroughly mixed and resulted in finished mix that was moist but not too moist.

The finished mix balls up when squeezed and still crumbles easily. May need a little more moisture but I'll re-read instructions on Doc's forum first.

My hands aren't quite the 'red clay earth hands' from the poem in my signature, but I still feel connected to growers everywhere whenever I get my hands in soil. It's one of those ancient practices that makes us human.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Harvest Update

Got dry weights of my last harvest:
Bubba Kush 2 = 36g
Dutch Treat 4 = 37g
Chernobyl 3 = 44g
Chernobyl 4 = 28g
Chernobyl 5 = 18g
I trimmed 5g each of best buds to save and sample (quality control is a hard job sometimes!

I also had 60g total of DT for making oil. (31g from DT4, only 29g from 3 earlier harvested DT.) First batch of single strain. Also first clear batch of oil, at least until I cooked it down to 6g of CCO. For all the trouble it was to grow this stuff is potent! I tried tacking a grain of rice sized drop, ended up swallowing most of it and within minutes I was flying. The DT I bought in past left me relatively clear-headed. Last night my whole body was tingling, mind was tingling too. Uplifting and relaxing, anything but productive. Couldn't even read other posts. I just lay in dark enjoying the buzz for couple hours until I was able to fall asleep, and slept well. Erased a lot of nagging doubts I've been having about my grow. Hope to get it made into biobomb suppositories to try this weekend. At same dosage this batch is at least 2x as strong as batch I'm using now.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

The HB10 Update

First off, I'm dropping 'flux' from the name, at least for now. I haven't had time to do any training beyond establishing 6 main branches, so really not applying principles of flux yet. I unwired everything over a week ago to avoid scarring, but didn't get around to rewiring until last night. She's been growing with the crowd of clones under my t5. Even with crowding and lack of wiring she looks pretty even. She has 6 main tips plus several central shoots that would fill 2x2 square with my best harvest yet. The problem is she has so many shoots right now for me to see what I'm working on. I was really tempted to just put her in tent as is, because I felt like I didn't have time or room to keep training her in veg. Well, I really didn't have space under T5, but today I stole one of LED fixtures from tent for her own. I want to get her to 36 colas even if I don't have time to do it exactly the way I laid out initially.

I wired the main branches again. The sections I originally wired are still at good angle and straight. I just had to adjust the ends from upward to lateral growth. The two bottom branches have grown up to level of others and are almost as thick now. They have slightly steeper angle and tips are a little higher than others to promote more growth. The others are at a slightly lower angle for now. One goal is to figure out the ideal angle for rapid lateral growth in cannabis. But first I need to deal with all the side shoots, a) to thin them down to ones I need, and b) to figure out how to control their growth in such a crowded area.

With main branches rewired I can see again, back to feeling positive about this project instead of wondering "what did I get myself into". She's manageable again, for a while at least. Now that she has own light growth should take off again. I was hoping to have high brix kit soil ready before repotting her, but I think she needs a 5-gal pot now since she's 3x as wide as her pot already.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

The Deficient Update

Good news is that I'm starting to get a handle on identifying various deficiencies. In particular P, K, Magnesium and Calcium.

Bad news is that it's too late to help plants nearing harvest. I see phosphorus deficiency in all of my White Widows and some others to the point that there's not enough fan leaves or even sugar leaves left to contribute much to final flowering. On left is WW2, who was on pace to set a new harvest record, now limping toward harvest this weekend. On right is WW5 suffering from the 5th deficiency (water). She is in coarse soil mix that drains too quickly, That plus difficulty of watering smart pots means no coming back for this one.

Back to the good news. Just switching soil to Sunshine #4 has made a world of difference. I made SOG pots with my surplus clones and Sunshine mix to fill in 5 gallon Target shopping bags. This was just supposed to be a way to get a little extra from my greenhouse, but they are doing so well I moved them to tent. That gives me more veg time to grow 2 gal clones to 5 gal size for next batch.

Dutch Treat, the strain that was ground zero for most of problems with first harvest, now making me wish I had saved a clone to keep strain going.

Chernobyl still showing signs of prior deficiencies. I see magnesium, others hard to identify because so many. New growth much better though.

Various unknown clones. One was a male HB that I had to pull. One is probably Dutch Amnesia Haze. other either DT or Chernobyl.

White Widows just entering flower. Very little sign of the many deficiencies they had prior to repotting in SOG.

And Bubba Kush, recently moved from shaded spot in greenhouse

Even though this is perpetual grow with constant changes, now it feels like I'm starting a whole new grow. I'm more sober from my mistakes, and more optimistic from recent changes at same time. I will be harvesting the last of original batch about the same time that my Doc Bud kit soil is done cooking. I think that would be a good time to close out this journal and start new one.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Harvest Update

No pics today. I left my phone at work last night. Good news is it's fully charged this morning.

I wanted to get shots of trichs and plan out harvest dates. All 8 White Widows need to be cut this weekend at 62 days today (2 at 68 days). Trich count was inconclusive last weekend, but this morning they were all at least 25% amber, some areas over 50%. Also may be cutting the 2 Dutch Amnesia Haze, 82 days. I didn't expect to find amber because this is sativa strain that reportedly goes 12-14 weeks. They're just under 12 weeks now, which snuck up on me. I forgot that I put them in flower earlier. Like the WWs the DAHs have no healthy fan leaves, one has some sugar leaves left.

The 2 I was planning to harvest, Black Cherry Soda and Critical, are both still producing white hairs, trichs are mostly cloudy but few amber. Also they both still have plenty of leaves to keep putting on weight for another week or so. Critical's fan leaves are still green and may keep going even longer. They both look like my first 1.5 oz plants already. Also have 1 Skunk #1 that could go longer but has so few leaves I doubt it will produce much more. This is just a clone I chose to grow out after I decided to cut the strain from grow. I'm already harvesting 10 plants so I'll probably let it go another week.

And the Hash Bombs are still going strong. Colas are sparse, like sticks instead of buds, but filling in. HB8, the indica-like pheno, is closest to harvest but is just starting to show a few amber trichs. Her buds are denser and fuller than others but I'd still like a couple more weeks to finish strong. HB4 and HB6 (68 days) and HB2 (62 days) show no amber. Since I selected HB2 as my clone line HB4 has had amazing stretch to almost double height, and is still filling in better than HB2 in spite of worse trunk damage from rats. As luck would have it I do still have a clone of HB4 in veg if I decide to keep that line instead of HB2.

After this weekend I will have 7 plants from original batch in tent: BCS, Critical, Skunk #1, and 4 HB, plus HB10 still in veg, and 3 in greenhouse: WW3 and 2 Mendo Madness at 51 days. Hard to predict on HBs because I've seen a few journals where Bomb strains went 14 weeks. I hope the greenhouse girls keep going into November. And I still have my HB10 project that will continue thru end of year. But other than that it really feels like my first grow is completed. Done, finished, over. 56 plants, 48 female raised to harvest, and a new generation of clones already in flower or about to go in. And a stock pile of medicine for my cancer treatment.

But the biggest harvest is the knowledge gained from my experiments and mistakes that have taken me from 1/3 oz. to 1.5 oz. per plant and realistically looking past 2 oz. to achieving 3 oz. per sq.ft. I will be sharing reflections on my development, lessons learned and where I go from here as I close this journal out over next few weeks.